


my right hand man

by ironmanned (pipergrace2015)



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: (mike's pov of everything leading up to this, Can be seen as Pre-Slash, Gen, and then finally when they see each other), ficlet i guess, if ppl like then i'll post the rest, the rest of the team pulling themselves together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 05:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4948114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipergrace2015/pseuds/ironmanned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike Ross being taken away from him would be like someone cutting off his right arm. What they do with it? He doesn't care. Even if it's to save the world or find a cure for cancer-- he's selfish, he knows, but dammit, he just want's his arm back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my right hand man

**Author's Note:**

> just a small part of a bigger idea i had (and started writing) also first suits fic ayy
> 
> let's place this around after 4x13 (that's the roadtrip ep right??). un-beta'd, so; sorry about the tense

It was 3am when Harvey got the call from Donna, telling him and Jessica to check their emails. It wasn’t until he heard a sound from Jessica that he realized it was a three-way call, and either Jessica was about to (elegantly) complain about the ungodly hour or she was in the middle of ‘ _vigorous activities_ ’, which, hey, Harvey should crack a joke about on the off chance it were true- when Donna’s voice stopped him, like she knew what he was thinking (she probably did) and was letting them know that this wasn’t the time.

“Guys,” she started, strangely hesitant, and, oh yeah, it was 3am after all, so this was something pertaining to Mike (and/or his secret), Louis, the firm in general, or something else entirely. Though not many things required a call at 3am that wasn’t the firm, but Harvey wouldn’t be who he was today if he panicked at every little thing, so he cleared those thoughts from his mind and focused on what Donna was saying.

“It’s important.” Well. That was vague. And he’d already come to that conclusion himself, _c’mon Donna_.

Jessica made a hmm-ish noise, and Harvey heard the sounds of someone getting out of bed (it’s a sound he recognizes well, having heard it so many times from his own conquests). Donna isn’t elaborating, so Harvey opens his mouth to tell her to get on with it, but Donna speaks again, stopping him again.

“Okay, Harvey I’m coming over to your house-” some shuffling, and a yell of taxi, “Just check your email; Jessica, I trust that you’ll be able to handle everything for now, just text me if you need any help.” And with that, Donna hangs up, incidentally cutting the connection between him and Jessica.

Putting his phone on the counter and pulling out his laptop from his bag, he boots the thing up, letting his mind wonder to possible scenarios of what, exactly, is going on. The obvious conclusion is that it’s related to the firm. Maybe Louis did something stupid again and they needed to fix it. But if that were true, Donna would’ve told them to go to the firm so they could start sorting it out. So _probably not_ Louis.

If not Louis, then the only other problem (not requiring them to go to the firm and fix) is Mike, but it’s highly unlikely that Mike’s secret was revealed at this time (cough 3am, cough, never letting Donna forget). Remembering that Donna said that it’s important yet she’s coming to his house, he changes tactics, trying to think in a more humane way.

(If Mike was here, he’d point out that it’s not exactly “more humane” but a more _Mike way_ of thinking, and then said person would act in that ridiculously childish way of his because he seems to lose all common sense when sleep deprived- it would probably be a dance this time.)

If not law firm related then… Injury? Was Mike hurt? Or Louis? Did Donna find out she had some terminal disease, or did she find out that Harvey himself had a terminal disease? Just as he was thinking about how much that would royally suck, his phone buzzes, screen showing a call from Jessica, with a little +Donna at the bottom. At the same time, his laptop has fully loaded, so he opens up his email, looking through the junk and spam for whatever Donna sent. It’s a forwarded email, and the subject line reads **RE: MJR ARREST REPORT.**

He hears Donna tell Jessica that _yes, Harvey’s probably opening the email right now_ (which he is), and the two women fall silent, presumably to let him read. Donna or someone else must have changed the order of the report, because the first page isn’t a page filled with information but an incident report- no wait, it’s a guilt admission. He spends a second too long staring at the handwriting because it looks familiar, and, wait, it looks like-

He doesn’t let his mind finish the thought, because it’s handwriting, _for god’s sake_ , it doesn’t mean anything.

It doesn’t help that the guilt admission was for being a fraud.

But that _doesn’t mean anything, right?_

There’s noise at the door, which he knows is Donna because he gave her a spare key for emergencies (or maybe she made a copy herself; he doesn’t entirely recall giving her a key) and Donna announces to Jessica that she’s at Harvey’s house, so Harvey hangs up and continues reading. The next page is a more detailed continuation, stating that _yes, I lied to get my job, no, no one else knew, can I go to prison quietly please because I don’t want to make my place of employment look bad?_

He scrolls to the next page, which is a compiled list of evidence and all the specific charges, while thinking _thank god Mike would never be in this situation_ , because who knew what Mike would end up saying if he was arrested for fraud, and especially with this much evidence, _wow_. Good luck getting out of this one, buddy.

He feels Donna sit down next to him, sees her phone on speaker mode and clutched tightly in her hand, and he keeps on reading, finally ending up on the last page; the one with the arrestee’s information.

The first couple of boxes had been filled out with an illegible scrawl, so he skims over it, looking for boxes filled out by the arrestee. Ah, there, name: Michael James Ross-

Michael James Ross. MJR.

That’s- That’s Mike’s full name.

Mike.

* * *

 

At 3am, Donna calls Harvey and Jessica to inform them that one Mike Ross, an associate, has been arrested for fraud with evidence that leaves the case practically airtight along with a full admission of guilt claiming that nobody knew, that he was in it alone.

He stares, not quite processing, rereading the report once, twice, thrice, and only when he allows himself to associate the writing on the report to Mike’s writing does it hit him, and he’s turning to Donna who immediately has a hand on his shoulder, and they don’t quite embrace but he grabs the hand that’s on his shoulder and gripped it tight, his other hand moving to rest on Donna’s knee.

“ _Fuck_ ,” soft, barely above a whisper, but Donna hears, and so does Jessica through the phone, for Donna just strokes his neck and Jessica gives an “I’m almost there.”

Donna’s free hand does something on his laptop and then there’s the authorities version of how exactly they found Mike out to be a fraud.

The first page is filled with investigation on himself, which continues on to the second page, and god _dammit_ , Harvey had indirectly gotten Mike arrested.

In the report they suddenly switch their focus to Mike, all from one conversation that they had with him. It was dated two weeks ago, and why _the hell_ didn’t Mike say anything about it?

The conversation starts off normal, and, okay, maybe Mike didn’t think there was a reason to worry, the questions seem more like small talk if anything, but slowly they start asking questions about his life (he mentioned his parents, maybe he was trying to soften their view on him) and his job, where they casually directed it to more about Harvey Specter than in general, and even if they do their research and find that Mike didn’t graduate pre-law from any college ever, it’s probably the one comment that Mike drops that alert them of something on their suspicious radar.

“I’m practically Harvey’s right hand man, I mean, I guess you could say I do all his dirty work,” along with a chuckle, the transcript says.

Oh my god, Mike is probably the biggest idiot on the planet. Did he not know what kind of attention that comment would receive?

Unless.

Unless he said that on purpose.

Unless Mike knew exactly what those men were after, and instead of evading, which would have lead to deeper investigation, or subtly pointing them in the direction they oh so wanted to go, i.e. straight to Harvey Specter, he chose the third option, the reckless option, and all by making a joke with a deeper context of _“maybe you should look into me, assholes,”_ and knowing Mike, it was probably delivered innocently enough to be passed off as a joke, but if they looked at him a second longer they would catch his little smirk that made you wonder how he was going to fuck you up this time and with what information, exactly, and _where_ did it come from?!

The thing was, Mike was a fairly good actor, because he could be cruel when he needed to be, and years of smoking pot and hiding from people taught him how and when to look innocent or suspicious; Harvey snorted to himself because he just complimented Mike, on his acting skills, nonetheless, something that Harvey prided himself very much in.

Feeling more than one pair of eyes on him, he looks up from the computer, only now noticing that not only had Jessica arrived, but Louis too and Mike’s paralegal friend, Rachel, all with papers in their hand and the same numbness he had first felt on their faces.

He was sure that there was a little smile on his face, and Rachel and Donna were looking at him with hope, Jessica with curiosity, and Louis with relief, though at whether he thought Harvey had gone crazy or something else, Harvey wasn’t sure.

Donna was the one to ask the question. “What’s so funny, Harv?” and Harvey felt a pang at the nickname because it was what Mike would start calling him when they were working late on a case and Mike would be too tired to talk properly, slurring the words not in the way one would while drunk, but more like a tired kid.

He shakes the thoughts and feelings away, because it wasn’t like Mike was dead. Mike was still alive, and Harvey would be able to talk to him, and right now, that was the only thing preventing him from drinking his sorrows away.

“Nothing really- just. You know how they were first interested in me? Yet one conversation with Mike completely threw them off my trail and onto his? He basically uses one line to do that, and I was just imagining how Mike would’ve delivered the line- because he actually isn’t a pretty bad actor, and he probably knew exactly what he was doing.” The to protect me was left unsaid, but Harvey felt as if he already said too much. In front of just Jessica and Donna, that was fine, but letting Louis and Rachel see him like this, it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

But he remembers that they were also friends of Mike, were also mourning for Mike, not because he’s dead, because he _isn’t_. Dead, that is, but because they lost a brilliant mind, one that deserved to go to law school and become a lawyer, and also because they lost the man that brought this odd group together.

Them six were the ones who ran the firm, in their own way, and they just had something vital to their survival stolen from them.

Donna smiles at him and Jessica throws him an amused look; Rachel is looking off to the side, clearly lost in a memory involving Mike and his acting, and was no doubt funny, judging by the small smile on her face. Louis just looked thoughtful, as if going through every memory of Mike (which probably wasn’t every moment, because only Mike could do that) and giving him a rating for his ‘acting skills’.

He closes his eyes, reminding himself that this is completely different than the time that Donna told him his father had a heart attack because _mike was still alive, get a hold of yourself_. Opening his eyes revealed a six-pack of beer that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Silently, Donna opened each bottle and handed one to everyone, the sixth one taken out of the pack but not opened, set in front of where Mike would’ve sat, had he been here.

They silently toast to Mike, and, heh, he would’ve loved that, claiming that “it was about time you all realized my greatness.” In a way, the kid was probably a mirror image of himself.

But maybe, just maybe, Harvey was also turning into a reflection of Mike. They complete each other, in a way truly stunning for others to witness.

Another thought pops into Harvey's head, a word, but he quickly pushes it away, because now isn't the time nor place, but he does promise himself that if-- _when_ he frees Mike, he'll make certain that Mike knows that their future, whatever it may be, is always going to be together.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thoughts? anything?
> 
> thanks for readin!!


End file.
